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Tag: Damocles Sword

Pensions & Fiscal Child Abuse

By JGillman, Section News
Posted on Fri Dec 27, 2013 at 10:14:13 AM EST
Tags: Damocles Sword, Debt, Pensions, POB, Obligation Bonds, Chris Radu, Mike Gillman, Traverse City, Grand Traverse County, Deficits, Shortfalls, Fiscal Child Abuse, Government, Arbitrage, ROI, SB1129 (all tags)

"Live now, pay later," might have easily supplanted the national motto of "E Pluribus Unum," instead of its supposed replacement, "In God we trust."

Aside from the obvious reference to unearned hedonism and individual irresponsibility, it should be noted that governments derived from such careless individuals as the "live now" crowd can bring all of us even closer to being debt slaves. Yet even without the notion of pleasure as an advance reward to leadership, the function of government runs unabated. One might find it differently in private enterprise however, according to Jack Spencer at Cap Con:

"In the private sector, businesses can't ignore economic reality by giving in to unrealistic union demands. They open their books and say, "look, we've had a lousy couple of years. We have to cut back or go under. We can't give you what you want." That reality check doesn't apply to government, which is always bargaining with other people's money. Those "other people" are us, the taxpayers. Over the decades, when faced with unpopular choices of cutting services or raising taxes, government officials have given unions most of what they asked for and left the tab to be picked up by future generations."

In a nutshell, that is it.

I've been there. In fact, I have been in both places simultaneously. At the business owned by my wife and I, folks haven't received raises in three years, yet as a county commissioner in 2012 I was present while union employees received automatic 1.5% increases. It made no sense to me that it should be so easy for a nearly unanimous Republican board to approve of such a thing, but over the years we have discovered that fiscal insanity is a scourge that has set upon both Capulet AND House Montague.

And it is generational too. So much so, that entire infrastructures are collapsing from the weight that has long had its supports removed. Pensions as a part of governmental financial negligence as referenced in the Cap Con piece above are responsible for cities literally falling apart, and legitimate public safety services being eliminated.

So what have we done to solve this?

Go below the fold to find out how we can actually make bad stuff, worse.

(3 comments, 2223 words in story) Full Story